Henri Barbusse for Penguin
This is a fictionalised account of a squad of poilus in 1915. Since it was one of the first of its genre it was interesting to see how it avoided some of the poetic bleating because of the greater length of the novel. One hardly encounters death until halfway through, there is one dramatic attack but the majority of time is spent thinking about food and grousing about conditions. In this Barbusse achieves much the same effect as reading the much longer (and factual) The War The Infantry Knew. Both books are valuable specifics against those who reckon the Great War was much worse than the 44-45 campaign.
Old Duffer's Book Corner Book Reviews
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© Copyright 2004 by Charles and Teresa Vasey.
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